The Los Angeles Chili Bowl Chain You Won't Find Open Anymore

Drive around Los Angeles and you might speed past a few hidden reminders of a long-lost chili chain. You won't see any signs advertising chili; the buildings have long since been converted into other restaurants and storefronts, but the strange shape of them hints at what they used to be. That's because they look like bowls. Simple, round buildings with slightly flared lips on the top, they come from the 30s and 40s heyday of what's known as "programmatic architecture," which is a term for a mid-century trend of building storefronts to literally represent what was sold inside. These were all over Los Angeles at one point — think coffee shops shaped like giant kettles — and at least one famous old-school LA restaurant, the hot dog-shaped stand Tail O' The Pup, is still going. And while the chain is gone, these bowl buildings used to be home to Chili Bowls.

Chili Bowl was a small chain of chili restaurants founded in 1931 by a former boxer named Art Whizin. The first location, set up in LA's Crenshaw neighborhood, was an immediate success with its chili bowl-shaped structure beckoning customers in. Its signature dish was called the "chili size," which was simply a hamburger patty smothered with the chain's signature chili recipe. In fact the whole concept was quite simple, with each shop being built with only 26 seats at a round counter where customers could easily be served by the young college kids Whizin staffed his business with.

The Chili Bowl expanded rapidly, sprouting up in 22 more locations around Los Angeles within a decade. However, Whizin himself was a restless man, and he soon grew bored with his chili restaurants. After World War II, he also had trouble finding college students willing the work the not-so-glamorous job, and tried transforming some of his Chili Bowl spots into ice cream parlors. Despite the early popularity of the Chili Bowl, by 1947, all the locations were closed.

Whizin himself was just getting started. He eventually built a mall in nearby Agoura Hills, and his Chili Bowl concept left an architectural legacy that far outlasted the food itself. Today, there are still three locations standing, although they have almost all been modified in some way. The one most closely resembling the original chili bowl design is in the LA suburb of Alhambra and now contains a Chinese noodle shop.

If Whizin had been less restless or just held out a little longer, Chili Bowl might have had a longer culinary legacy because it was an early adopter of the chili concept that would get even more popular after World War II. Local SoCal burger chain Tommy's, famous for its chili dogs and burgers, was founded in 1946, along with another local legend, Burbank's Chili Johns, and chili would become a staple of LA fast food. Sometimes disappearing is the price of being ahead of the curve.